Circle of Shadows

by Curry, Edna

  “Yes.” Anna paged through the invoices anxiously.

  “Was something shorted?”

  Anna frowned, and shook her head, then turned the sheet around to show Lili. “No, but I can’t find that case of beans for the firemen’s picnic tonight. It’s listed on the invoice, and here’s my check mark, so I know it came on the truck.”

  “Well, don’t let it bother you. One of the stock boys must have put it up.”

  “But I asked them. They deny it. And I used my wide black marking pen when I put a note on it, so it would have been hard to miss,” Anna said, handing back the invoices.

  “Did you check the shelf?”

  “There’s only half a case of the gallon size there.”

  “Do any of the girls remember selling them? It’s an unusual item, it might stick in their mind.”

  “I’ll ask, but that won’t help me fill this order.”

  Lili sighed. “You’re right, of course, Anna. How about other sizes? Can’t you substitute?”

  “Sure,” Anna agreed, turning to leave. “But they’re going to grumble at having to open more smaller cans.”

  “Give them a good price to make up for it.”

  “Okay.” Anna went to obey. She should have told Lili her suspicions, she scolded herself. It had been the perfect opportunity. All she would have had to do was admit that this was forming a pattern—that this was the fourth time this month that something she was sure was there, was not there, and she’d had to substitute. How many other things could be missing that she was not aware of, such as cases of groceries meant only to re-stock the shelves? There were thousands of items in a store this size, and there was no way anyone could keep track of them all, especially with a half-dozen people on different shifts, all working on filling shelves.

  Anna was a coward. She knew it, but she couldn’t help it. She was afraid of being blamed for the problem and losing her job. She was almost to retirement and too old to start a new job. She couldn’t take that chance, especially with a new boss.

  Lili stared after Anna speculatively. It really wasn’t like her to be so upset over a little thing like a mislaid case of groceries.

  Lili knew it wasn’t at all unusual for people to suddenly buy a lot of one item, so that the store was out. So why was Anna angry over it? No, more panicked than angry. Scared, even. Odd. She’d ask her about it later.

  She sighed and put the invoices back at the bottom of their stack, and tackled her sorting once more. Damn Father anyway, for doing this so sloppily, for not letting her help him with this job weeks ago and for keeping the whole store years behind other stores in ordering and stocking methods. That was one consolation anyway. Ken would probably let her modernize some things around here. He had hinted as much, saying they would talk about some changes next week.

  And damn Ken, too, for demanding so much, so soon. To be fair, if she’d told him her father had left the store bookkeeping in a mess, Ken would probably have given her more time. But she had the sneaking suspicion that he might also think she would do things the same way as her father, and use that as a reason to fire her before she had a chance to change anything, or to show him she could handle the job.

  With only short breaks to walk through the store to check on things and throw a frozen dinner into the microwave oven in their break room, Lili spent most of the day in the office. By eight-thirty, she had a splitting headache, but most of the stacks of papers were in proper order. She decided to leave the filing for the next day and walked out.

  Arthur was in charge of the evening shift, and was at the till waiting on a couple of teenagers as she left. His back was to her, so she skipped the good-night. She just smiled and waved at Billy and Alex who were operating the noisy floor-scrubbing machine.

  Thunder rolled and lightning lit up the sky as she headed for home. Heavy raindrops began to fall as she ran for the front door, thankful for the wide overhang that ringed the lower floor of this house.

  The phone rang as she walked in the door. She grabbed the extension in the recreation room and sank down in the chair to answer it.

  “Lili! Where have you been? I was getting worried.” Her mother’s voice came over the wires, through the static of the storm’s interference.

  “I just got in, Mom. Why didn’t you try the store?”

  “You mean you were still working this late?”

  Lili winced at the accusation in that question, but merely said, “Yes, Mom. I had a lot of catching up to do this week.”

  “Well, you’ll have one less worry, now. Agnes sold her house. Isn’t that great?”

  “Yes, I know. Mrs. Langley called and told me this morning.” Lili didn’t mention the sadness that news had brought to her morning. Sarah and Agnes were obviously pleased, so she mustn’t spoil their pleasure with her nostalgia. Selling the house was Agnes’ decision, not hers.

  “Here’s Agnes,” Sarah said, and Lili could hear a giggle as they changed places. She felt pleased that they were enjoying their vacation together.

  “Hello, dear,” Agnes said. “Isn’t that great? Of course, in a way I’m sad to give up the old place; it has so many happy memories. But life has to go on, you know. Mrs. Langley said she won’t need your key returned. The man who bought it is a computer nut, and he’ll be having new locks installed to protect all his fancy equipment. The large back bedroom that you kids all used to sleep in will be his office. Isn’t that wild?”

  “Mm, yes, wild, Aunt Agnes.”

  As she hung up she pictured the new owner, probably a skinny little man with glasses, hunched over a terminal, his eyes glued to the screen. Wild and woolly all right. Aunt Agnes didn’t know what ‘wild’ was.

  She’d forgotten to ask the new owner’s name. Oh, well, what did it matter?

  A few minutes after Lili walked out of the store, Ken Mills stopped in to buy some coffee on his way to his new house. He remembered he’d forgotten to tell Lili that he’d asked Renee to have his office supply house ship her a computer set-up like the ones the rest of his managers used. It should arrive in the next couple of days, and he didn’t want to antagonize Lili further by surprising her with it. He realized that he was looking forward to seeing her often, now that he’d be living so close.

  Lili hadn’t answered his ring at her house, so Ken was hoping she might still be at the store. The store was busy and Arthur was manning the second till instead of his meat counter. He looked startled to see Ken, and informed him Lili was still in her office, then walked back with Ken and pushed open the door. The office was dark.

  Arthur said, “I guess she did leave. I didn’t see her go.” He reached around the corner and snapped on the light, almost as though he expected her to be sitting there in the dark.

  Ken stared in shock at the office. It had been fairly neat just two days ago, now stacks of papers covered the desk and the long table against the wall. She must be doing a complete overhaul of the filing system.

  “She’s been very busy back here, I guess,” Arthur commented sheepishly. “Robert didn’t like office work much. Lili probably has a lot of catching up to do.”

  “I guess,” Ken said through tight lips. He picked up a few of the invoices on the stacks nearest him, then put them down and flipped through another stack, noting that some of them were months old. What the hell was going on?

  “Well, I’ll just leave this for her and stop another time.” He dropped the large manila envelope he’d been carrying in the most conspicuous place on her desk, directly in front of her chair.

  He noticed that the waste basket held empty heat and serve food trays. More than one! She must have been eating here, working through her lunch and dinner hours.

  For Pete’s sake! Had he come across to her as that much of a slave-driver? His frown deepened. He was sure that no one else saw him that way. Should he go to her house and tell her to ease up, or would that only make it worse? She had already put in a long day, so she was not likely to welcome seeing him.

 
Ken turned back to Arthur. “You can tell her I stopped,” he said shortly, and strode out.

  “Sure thing,” Arthur said, snapping off the light.

  No wonder Lili had asked for some time to do the reports he wanted, Ken mused as he drove through the rain to his new house. He could see that Robert’s affairs were in no kind of shape from which to type up a quick report. Lili must have been too loyal or too embarrassed to tell him so.

  Sighing, he realized it was going to take more than a little time to build some trust between them. He’d better invent some excuses to spend time with her. He tried to ignore the thrill of pleasure that decision brought him.

  He would call her tomorrow. He smiled, remembering that soft curvy body and gorgeous strawberry blonde hair. This assignment was going to be a pleasure. If she’d cooperate.

  His smile faded. He’d have to use business to bribe her until she made peace with him over his purchase of Adams’ Foods.

  He spent the evening dodging cold raindrops as he unpacked his car. Later, he paced his new home, deciding where he wanted his furniture.

  Finally, Ken spread his sleeping bag on the carpet in the living room alcove in front of the large windows. He could have spent the night in a motel and been much more comfortable, but he’d wanted to spend it here. He wanted to physically claim his new home. It was the first time he had owned a house. He’d always lived in a rented apartment.

  He showered, thankful that Agnes hadn’t shut off the utilities. Tucked in at last, he found himself thinking about Lili instead of sleeping. He told himself he was only anxious to get her reports, to try to figure out for himself why Robert had said Adams’ Foods was losing money. And, if it was, to try to turn the situation around, in spite of Robert’s warning.

  He hadn’t told Lili what Robert had said. Maybe he should have. Maybe Robert had sold the store because he didn’t want his daughter to be saddled with a losing business, rather than because of his male chauvinism as she thought. Maybe if she could accept that idea, she would get over her anger sooner.

  Then again, maybe she was right, and was having a hard time accepting that her anger at her father’s chauvinism was getting in the way of grieving for him.

  Emotions were complicated things, and he had better let her deal with hers in her own way.

  He had a rule, he always stayed out of his employees’ personal lives. He was not succeeding with Lili. He was already emotionally involved.

  Ken lay awake for a long time. The rain ended and the sky cleared. He watched the stars twinkle far above and listened to the waves lap at the lake shore below. He found himself fantasizing about what it would be like to have her here with him in this lovely room.

  He thought about how nice it would be to make love here, in front of these wide windows with only the sky, lake, and stars as witnesses. He grew hard thinking about Lili, and he cursed himself for a fool to dream of the impossible.

  Chapter 5

  Anxious to get the day going, Ken made do with coffee and a cinnamon roll for breakfast. Until the movers arrived with his furniture, he could do little except stroll about the house, mentally arranging his furniture and possessions in each room. Everything was spotless and Agnes had left behind the refrigerator and stove, so those were already usable.

  When he found himself pacing, he went outside and walked down to the dock to watch the white-capped waves roll into shore. A stiff breeze ruffled his hair, yet the sun blazed brightly against a brilliant blue backdrop of sky and lake.

  The scent of flowers captured his attention. He found its source in a mass of pink blossoms overhead and off to his left, where a flowering crabapple tree stood along one side of the house. He followed the path around the house, along the flat stones set in crushed rock to the back of the house, and through the pines to the driveway on the same level as the upper floor of the house.

  Ken’s explorations were interrupted when the telephone company’s truck appeared. He went back inside to supervise the installation of two phone lines. The locksmith arrived soon after and he explained what he needed changed.

  At last Ken felt as if he were back in business. He called his office and gave Renee his new phone numbers, telling her to fax him any urgent letters or messages and to hold the others until he came in on Monday. Then he set up the fax machine on some cardboard boxes of files on the floor.

  In spite of having told Renee that he was taking Friday off, he began filling the spare time with calls. He dialed the Allied warehouse and set up Adams’ Foods as a new account, writing down account numbers and dates for a field ‘rep’ to call on Lili so that he could pass them on to her the next time he saw her.

  Ken groaned as he remembered that he hadn’t yet told Lili that she had to switch warehouses. Of course, she might realize that, but he had emphasized that things wouldn’t change too much at that staff meeting. Had he overdone it? Surely she’d understand that stores in a corporation had to be compatible with each other, wouldn’t she? He sighed as he thought of the mess in her office last night. He was definitely rushing things. His big weakness was impatience. She was not going to appreciate it.

  “Hold off implementing this for a couple of weeks, will you, Tom?” he asked. “Lili’s new at this, and her father just died as well. I think she needs a little more time to get adjusted before we change her store over.”

  “Whatever you say, Ken. I’ll put it on my calendar.”

  Ken dialed Adams’ Foods and waited for the checkout clerk to ring Lili’s office. He swallowed when he heard her soft, clear voice on the other end of the line. “It’s Ken Mills, Lili.”

  “Oh, hello, Ken. I’m sorry I’d already left when you stopped here last night.”

  Wariness had crept into her voice, warning him to keep the conversation focused on business, or she was going to refuse to have dinner with him. “Did you find the sample reports I left on your desk?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “There are a few things we should discuss as soon as possible. Are you free for dinner tonight?”

  “No, I’m sorry, I’m on duty tonight.”

  “You’re not working there alone, are you? Don’t you get a dinner hour?”

  “Yes, of course, but I have to stay within call. I usually just grab a sandwich or salad at Lander’s House down the street.”

  “Fine. I’ll join you and we can talk while we eat. What time?” he asked, giving her no polite way to refuse.

  “Six.”

  He smiled. Her voice sounded resigned rather than pleased, but she had agreed. “I’ll meet you there, in the dining room.”

  Finally, the moving van arrived. Two burly men were soon placing furniture and boxes of his possessions in their proper rooms as Ken directed.

  ***

  Lili took a table near the windows in the dining room of Landers’ House. She laid her portable phone beside the red pebbled glass bowl holding a flickering candle and rested her chin in her hand. A waitress appeared with a glass of water, menu, and a pot of coffee.

  “The usual, Lili?” she inquired, softly.

  Lili glanced up. “Hi, Nell. No, I’m waiting for Mr. Mills tonight. I’ll probably just have the salad bar, but you’d better come back when he gets here.”

  “Sure thing. I’ll watch for him.” Nell poured Lili’s coffee and set the pot on the table.

  Lili sipped her coffee, keeping an eye on the street for Ken’s silver Mercedes. She still hadn’t seen it when she glanced up to see him crossing the dining room. He was dressed casually in brown slacks and a soft beige sweater that she was sure was cashmere. A soft gasp of appreciation for his broad shoulders and narrow hips curled in her throat. Did the man have to be so damned attractive? Why couldn’t he have been balding with a spare tire around his middle, so that her traitorous hormones wouldn’t react to him this way?

  Every woman in the place turned her eyes towards him as he strolled across the room and took the chair opposite her. Lili swallowed nervously and glanced up to see an
envious look on Nell’s face as she hurried to serve them. Damn. Now she was going to have to put up with gossip, in addition to everything else. Still, Lili felt pleased at the idea of other women envying her.

  She and Ken greeted each other and ordered under Nell’s watchful eyes. He nodded in agreement when Lili chose the salad bar.

  “I’ll have the same. But let’s have some meat off that smorgasbord too. I’ve been living on hamburgers for days. And you could use a bit of fattening up.” His eyes raked over her.

  How dare he! Heat rose in her face. “My weight is fine,” she began, then met his eyes, and thought better of antagonizing her new boss. Forcing a smile, she added, “But some chicken or fish would go nicely with my salad..”

  They filled their plates and ate, chatting about the town, the restaurant, the coming tourist season, and the house he’d bought on Long Lake and had already moved into. He told her he was looking forward to trying out the fishing. She half listened, thinking if you had enough money, you could make things happen with amazing speed. People always moved heaven and earth to prioritize the wishes of the rich, she thought bitterly.

  Lili glanced at her watch, noting that half her dinner hour was gone, and Ken still had said nothing about business.

  When the waitress had taken their plates and brought a fresh pot of coffee, he leaned back and met her eyes.

  “Did you have time to look at those sample reports that I left on your desk last night?”

  “Yes, thank you. They were similar to others I’ve done.”

  “Good. Then doing some for your store will be no problem?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’ll do one the first of the week.”

  “Are you sure that’ll be enough time? You seemed to be doing quite a housecleaning job in your office.”

  She flushed. “I’m afraid my father left it rather unorganized. I’m almost finished putting it in order.”

  “Good. I’m sure you’ve done reports on a computer?”